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Kate Elliott

A visualization of Geary Boulevard at Buchanan Street with Geary Rapid improvements.

March 29 Update: The next major step for the Geary projects (both the Geary Rapid project and the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project) is a hearing at an SFMTA Board of Directors meeting this summer to complete local environmental review approvals. Then, once the Federal Transit Administration has signed off on the final environmental impact statement, the Geary Rapid project team will complete the outreach described below to finalize design details. Implementation of the Geary Rapid improvements is expected to start next year.

We’re gearing up to start the first set of Geary transit upgrades later this year.

In the coming months, we will launch further outreach for theGeary Rapid Project,which focuses on early improvements on the stretch of the 38 Geary route between Market Street and Stanyan streets. In the meantime, we will finalize the design and construction of longer-term improvements for the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project.

With the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) approved unanimously by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) Board in January, lead management of the project is transitioning from the SFCTA to the SFMTA, which will design and implement Geary improvements as two separate projects.

As Geary Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) hits a major milestone this week, we’re providing new opportunities to get answers to today’s biggest questions about the project.

On Friday, the Geary BRT Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will be made available online at the Geary BRT EIR page and at public libraries near the 38 Geary route. The document will include the recommended design option, years of analytical work detailing how the project is expected to affect communities as well as responses to public comments.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) Board, which is comprised of the SF Board of Supervisors, is set to vote on approval of the Final EIR and the Geary BRT project on January 5. Early improvements will start in 2017.

Learn more about the next steps in our blog post from last month. To stay in the loop on hearing dates and how to give decision-makers your feedback, visit the Geary BRT website. You can also get Geary BRT updates via text message by texting YES to 628-600-1675.

Over the past year, the SFMTA and the SF County Transportation Authority have worked with communities along the corridor to refine the design details, which you can learn more about below. The proposed transit improvements, like center-running bus-only lanes, would save Muni customers up to 20 minutes round trip and make service more reliable.

San Francisco has painted transit-only lanes red since 2013 to provide a stronger visual cue for drivers to avoid them, with the goal of making transit faster and more reliable.

The newest red lanes were added this weekend on two blocks of Judah Street, between 9th and 10th avenues and between 19th and 20th avenues as part of a fast-tracked segment of the N Judah Rapid project. The Muni Forward project includes proposals to add red transit lanes, replace some stop signs with transit-priority traffic signals to reduce delay, and extend boarding islands to allow for two-car trains, all in conjunction with improvements in the Sunset Tunnel.

This weekend crews installed the red lanes on Judah Street with UCSF in the distance.

Earlier this month, we partnered with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to host the Geary Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) public comment meeting. The public comment meeting is part of the public review process for the Draft Environmental Document featured last month on this blog. More than 160 people came to the meeting to learn more about the project and submit comments.

Attendees had the opportunity to discuss the project one-on-one with staff stationed at display boards and large-format scroll maps illustrating the proposed changes in the staff-recommended alternative. The scroll maps, divided into five sections, stretched over 32 feet long! The maps showcased all of the proposed changes in the staff recommended design from the Outer Richmond to Downtown.

This rendering of O'Farrell Street, which will also see improvements in this project, and more visualizations are available on www.gearybrt.org.

It’s been more than two months since the turn restrictions went into effect on Market Street, but the SFMTA is still hard at work making it safer as implementation continues for the Safer Market Street project.

On July 31, just before the turn restrictions went into effect, our paint crews began adding to the red transit-only lanes on Market Street. To date, we have completed the red lanes on Market from 8th to O’Farrell streets and extended or added transit-only lanes on 3rd, 7th and O’Farrell streets.